He had something of a career epiphany after becoming the conductor of the ”girls”, which are basically young women aged between 16 and 22. And they have to sound like young women, not girls.
Here he was able to combine several of his favourite roles in one job: as a pianist, his love of song treasure, conductor and host in different genres, as well as arranging the works of song treasure.
-I've never experienced anywhere that everything I care about comes together like in my current job.
That's why we see him as an exuberant and obvious emcee at Christmas concerts, dark concerts and the popular concert series, Your Danish Song, where the eighth concert in the series recently filled the hall. Or perhaps we should call it the 16th concert. The great interest in the mix of the Girls” Choir, the opportunity for the audience to sing along with parts of the programme and the feature with a singer who is known for completely different genres than ”Højskolebogen og Salmebogen", who chooses three songs from the same books, comments on the choice and sings the songs and hymns. This combination has been such a good idea that Din Danske Sang is doubled with two concerts on Sunday afternoon.
How do you explain the fact that interest in choir singing, and not least with the Girls' Choir, is growing rapidly in recent years?
”My answer may sound a little pocket philosophical, but I see the explanation as a counter-reaction. In my generation (Phillip Faber was born in 1984, ed.) and also before and after, there has been a tendency for everything to be about the individual's opportunities to develop, about ”me-me-me-me".
-”Now the wave is going the other way. Many have sought out traditional communities such as church and other gatherings of people, but now many are finding a place of ”belonging" in singing, including community singing.
-"For the Girls' Choir, it's also true that they combine the best of the amateur world with professional virtues such as precision, time and discipline. And we demand a lot from the girls. They have to be able to read music and they have to pass an audition, even if they have attended choir school.
-They spend 10 hours on two weekly rehearsals, have about 40 productions a year, and far from all of them take place in DR-Byen. For example, the choir was very successful when it accompanied the Danish Olympic delegation to Brazil in 2016. So the girls in the choir spend a lot of their free time singing.
-"It takes more than just being able to sing well. It takes great will and maturity.
According to Phillip Faber, the girls' choir's strength lies in the fact that the activities take place under the auspices of DR, and also in the legacy of the choir's predecessors, who turn 80 this month. Several of the girls' mothers and grandmothers are themselves part of the 80-year legacy.
- It's remarkable that the repertoire has remained largely the same over the years. I think that's a great signalling value in a world where what's new today is passé tomorrow.
However, you do edit some of the song catalogue by making new arrangements of the melodies and singing alternative melodies to a given text. How is this received by an audience, many of whom have a clear idea of which melody to I Østen stiger Solen op is the right one and which is the wrong one?
- It does cause some debate from time to time, but I like that. And we make a point of respecting tradition and having an anchor in the songbook.
-Sometimes reinterpretations can also bring more attention to the part of the song treasure that is the lyrics. Just as we are fully aware of our function as a role model for a number of choirs around the country.
Phillip Faber was headhunted for the job, but why did he say yes to the girls' choir when he has also conducted boys' and adult choirs?
-"I never thought it would be the Girls' Choir either. Even though I've followed them for many years and attended a number of their concerts before I became their conductor. When I got the job, I was studying in Stockholm and the Swedes didn't really understand why I wanted to choose the girls' choir, they asked if it was something like their Adolf Fredericks choir, but it's not - the Swedish choir is not comparable to DR Pigekoret - there is a difference both in terms of age and in the level of activity. In general, there aren't many girls' choirs like ours in the world.
There is no shortage of music for girls' choirs either. Brahms did write some works for women's choirs, but Mozart never wrote one.
Phillip Faber is a friendly, witty, knowledgeable and smiling man who comes across as open and welcoming. Perhaps the members of the Girls' Choir can nuance this image. In any case, Phillip Faber is a demanding artistic director of the choir.
-"The girls don't generally have a say in the repertoire. I make a lot of effort to clarify when they have a say and when they don't. We in management set the repertoire. Another thing is that when they like a piece we present to them, they raise themselves 10 per cent above their already high level. They always sing as they should, but I would like to find the formula for hitting that extra 10 per cent, while being aware that the girls' own taste in music is primarily contemporary music
-"If you find that formula, you get rich," says Phillip Faber with a wry smile.
The members of the Girls” Choir predominantly come from ”a home with a piano", but there are perhaps not as many with parents as you might think are into music. Less than half. The Girls' Choir is not for everyone, emphasises the conductor, who would like to see greater diversity in the choir in relation to society in general.
-"But it's important for me to emphasise that we see the girls as resourceful individuals. In the choir, they are all equal - in the past, some of them were appointed as prefects and thus above the others, today no one is more than the others, and they should get the impression that in the choir they achieve something they cannot achieve on their own, but which comes to them when they are together on the task. But we also set limits to the care in the choir.
Does anyone get kicked out of the choir before they leave or turn 22?
-Some start right from the Spirekoret, others are here for a shorter time.
Is the Girls' Choir intended to be a stepping stone to a professional career in music later in life?
- No, we want to give them musical competences in their heads, and we also want to give them the social understanding of: We can't do this alone, we can do it together. On the other hand, a professional career is almost a non-goal. We're not training for a choir career, but we're certainly not sad if it ends up as a career.
-Most importantly, they learn that there is something more important than themselves. I'm proud when we succeed in moulding people as part of a community, when they become great team players.
It's rare that we audience members get to sing along at adult choir concerts. The argument is that we are happy amateurs who don't fit in with a rehearsed and often professional choir. Do you buy the argument that the audience should usually listen and not sing along?
- No, I don't. The audience knows Carl Nielsen's songs well, for example. I think there will be more communal singing at concerts.
It does so in the Concert Hall. DR KoncertKoret also involves their audience in their spring concert as something new: The most beautiful choirs , and in very difficult pieces such as Mozart's Requiem. And the ”adults” in the DR Vocal Ensemble will also sing together with the audience at ”Singing with the DR Vocal Ensemble”
-But it's much harder to sing in the theatre than it is to sing from the stage. The members of the girls' choir experience this when some of them occasionally sing from the balconies. And when we have a sing-along to Your Danish Song, we amplify my piano so it doesn't drown out the singing from the theatre.
You've even gone so far as to let the audience choose some of the community songs. How does that work, doesn't it easily become the same choices every time?
-No. The average person will undoubtedly choose what they already know. But at the concert the other day, many chose current songs such as the contemporary Septembers himmel er så blå or some of Benny Andersen's songs - no doubt because they submitted their choices just as Benny Andersen died. No, the choices are not as predictable as you might think.
- We also choose songs from the newer repertoire for the concerts that the audience doesn't know in advance, but which we hope they will take to heart. Most recently, Per Nørgaard's Løft mig kun bort, where the choir's voices sound fantastically lifelike, like a flock of birds taking off.
Finally. Where will you be in ten years?.
-"I'm usually able to answer that question, but I'm actually not able to today," concludes Phillip Faber.
Phillip Faber (born 1984) is a composer and conductor educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Royal Danish Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.
He became chief conductor of the Girls' Choir in 2013.
He has also guest conducted the DR VokalEnsemblet and DR KoncertKoret, DR Symfoniorkestret.
He has received DR's language award.